Mark Frauenfelder over at BoingBoing has posted some pictures he took with his cell. One of them is of a horrible 70's book called "Don't Throw it Away!", and includes something that looks frighteningly like a potato chip mobile.

For some reason, the phrase "Potato Chip Mobile" causes me to giggle uncontrollably. It's right up there with "Origami Boulder".

This is going to be a music post, because I like music and I think other people should like what I like. That's the kind of non-conformist I am. Here's what I've been listening to today:

Carolina [Ben Gibbard]: This is from the Home V EP

Playhouses [TV on the Radio]: From the upcoming Return to Cookie Mountain album

The unobserved life is no life at all. I consider myself to be a writer and a photographer, so it's sort of hard for me to NOT observe. I find myself noticing detail, angle, light, ideas.

When the child was a child, a day in the sun was the best thing that could be imagined, and tomorrow was a speck on the horizon. If noticed at all, it might be a bird, or a bug, or something more fantastic.

When the child was a child, the present moment was enough, and when it was done, another one was waiting.

I'm sitting here at my dining room table, the ruins of a pancake breakfast surrounding me, birdsong drifting in through the open back door. It's sunny, and there's a breeze. I feel it on my cheek as I write this.

First of all, the Fark.com headline for the raccoon story:

Mary had a small raccoon,
it scrambled up a pylon,
10,000 volts went up its arse,
and turned its fur to nylon.

I don't think I can really top that, so I'm not going to try.

It appears that I'm going to have a lot of extra time on my hands these days, due to the fact that The Girl and I are no longer an item. I feel hurt and angry, and I'm grieving for something that I thought had real potential. I'm comforted by the fact that I know I treated her right, and that I did the absolute best I could. In the end, though, it just wasn't enough. Other things took priority, and I have to accept that.